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Installation

Prerequisites

  • Rust toolchain — Perry is built with Cargo. Install via rustup:

    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

  • System linker — Perry uses your system’s C compiler to link:

    • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
    • Linux: gcc or clang (apt install build-essential)
    • Windows: MSVC via Visual Studio Build Tools

Install Perry

git clone https://github.com/skelpo/perry.git
cd perry
cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/perry. Add it to your PATH:

# Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
export PATH="/path/to/perry/target/release:$PATH"

Self-Update

Once installed, Perry can update itself:

perry update

This downloads the latest release and atomically replaces the binary.

Verify Installation

perry doctor

This checks your installation, shows the current version, and reports if an update is available.

perry --version

Platform-Specific Setup

macOS

No additional setup needed. Perry uses the system cc linker and AppKit for UI apps.

For iOS development, install Xcode (not just Command Line Tools) for the iOS SDK and simulator.

Linux

Install GTK4 development libraries for UI apps:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libgtk-4-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gtk4-devel

Windows

Install Visual Studio Build Tools with the “Desktop development with C++” workload.

What’s Next